Games of chance are well known activities whose outcomes are strongly influenced by randomizing devices and upon which contestants may wager money as they forecast outcomes. Common randomizing devices include dice, spinning tops, playing cards, roulette wheels, prize wheels, and numbered balls drawn from containers. Games of chance have been played throughout all of human history and are considered to be a popular pastime by many. Players of games of chance are attracted to new and exciting methods of game play as well as new and exciting randomizing devices. For this reason, the gaming industry is continuously developing new games, and new randomizing devices to maintain player interest and attract new players.
Games of chance that include money wagers are typically regulated by governing authorities. These governing authorities enforce laws and regulations that are enacted to curtail certain kinds of games, as well as certain kinds of randomizing devices. For example, in some jurisdictions, the use of dice or roulette wheels to resolve a game outcome, i.e., as the randomizing device, have been curtailed while other randomizing devices such as playing cards are permitted. More frequently, randomizing devices that use playing cards have been utilized as they enjoy fewer restrictions in games played for money, than dice and roulette wheel randomizing devices.
However, current card shuffling devices still have some drawbacks. For example, most card shuffling devices retain the cards in a fashion such that that the indicia of the card cannot be readily seen when the card is in the shuffling device. The indicia of the card can only be seen after the shuffling device has stopped and the selected card has been removed from the device. Consequently, the suspense that exists with some other random number devices, such as roulette wheels, is not provided by current card shuffling devices. It would therefore be desirable to provide a card shuffling device that addresses these drawbacks and provides increased user enjoyment for players.